Avoiding a big white cuboid

[Moonshine]

Planning factors have come into play, that mean it may be advantageous to build a contemporary house, rather that a more traditional style.

I am not a massive fan of contemporary houses and too many of them look like a white cube, with a bit of wooden cladding stuck on to break up the white.

Anyone got any views on what features add to make a contemporary house stand out, rather than just another white washed cube.

I suppose bit will be easier to build ?

Edited July 24, 2019 by Moonshine

[vivienz]

They don't have to be render. We went for slate and stone as coverings.

[Bitpipe]

Speaking as the owner of a mostly cuboid white box...

 

Our architect created a few features to break it up - we have a 6m wide 2m deep cantilevered box that projects from the middle of the first floor (bathrooms inside) and recessed bedroom balconies at the rear. We have a traditional pitched roof which also breaks it up and we have a consistent palette of RAL 7016 for downpipes, windows, soffits & root parapets. 

 

It it all adds to cost but does look good. 

 

You can see it here 

 

[Ferdinand]

Makrpe it like a Rubik’s Cube not a Sugar Cube.

 

(Runs and hides)

[lizzie]

Mine is render/clad but not cuboid.  Planning here would only allow for a very modern style in the context of the old house of special historic interest  part of garden we bought as our plot.  They def did not want a ‘traditional’ style, it had to be different.

 

We also had at planners insistence to drop the house down a few metres from ground level so it didnt stick up on the horizon and impact on the view for those behind us.

 

Some challenges as I did not want anything subterranean or banked into the earth. I wanted a stylish modern bungalow that I could walk right around outside...detached and stand alone. We ended up digging out a platform a few metres down hence why I have a 3m high retaining wall around two sides of the plot.

 

We got there, with house design eventually and I think ours works, I didn't want a white box and stone/slate would not have worked here so I compromised on render on the walls that get the most of the fierce weather and larch cladding on the rest plus lots of glass.  My house footprint has lots of ins and outs its not square...I know more expensive to build but to me a more interesting building for having that detail.  Initially they insisted on a green roof but we went back afterwards and amended to single ply membrane as I didn't want a living roof.  We had to reduce some of the upward curving angles on the roof as it became technically quite challenging as to how to keep it fixed down in the huge winds we get and I have two roofs on my house one warm part of tf and with another one sitting on top which is the angled part and is a cold roof.......All great fun, what I have ended up with is a lot more me than architect initial ideas ...we managed to get there together in the end.

 

Try and look are your surroundings and see how your house will sit, it may become apparent that a white cube would be perfect for your location on the other hand a zinc roof barn style may present itself as the ideal option.  Find your style and design your house with conviction not from the architect catalogue of modern houses then tell planners why it will be perfect.

[Moira Niedzwiecka]

I would have loved to build the glazed white cube.

Alas, although I am outside the village envelope I am still inside the conservation area.

Had to use ironstone & have a pitched slate roof, no choice.

The challenge then was to make it look as little like the traditional cottage I am moving from and as contemporary as possible.

I managed to get the planners to agree to gables in render & some cedar cladding to the front elevation.

Saved a lot of money as all stone would have been very expensive.

Now it is built I quite like it.

[the_r_sole]

.

Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[nod]

I like contemporary 

But not a big fan of render 

Planners insisted we matched next door with slate and sash windows 

and render throughout 

Though is inside is all German with clean lines 

 

 

[MrSniff]

Lots of cuboid contemporary houses here - the planners (if there are any, I'm not entirely sure sometimes) seem happy to mix old classical houses with crisp contemporary designs, even as semis. The cuboid is often broken by inset balconies and protrusions (for lack of a better word) giving a kind of layered look, often further broken up by areas of cladding or a feature render colours. Plenty of white around, but also other colours for render and cladding such as timber, often at interesting angles rather than vertical or horizontal, zinc and even rusty steel (largely due to Luxembourg's history in steel production). I suspect that the UK planners are more conservative, so much may not be relevant, but at least here they seem able to think outside the cuboid...

[scottishjohn]

In our area replacement  of traditional long low houses with modern is not what they want -when bringing old house back into use --

so for all scotland like to shout about being eco friendly etc

when it comes to building most efficient  housing for footprint  -they fall short 

 

[SteamyTea]

20 seconds googleing round contemporary houses images.

I want one that looks like the Star Ship Enterprise

Edited July 25, 2019 by SteamyTea

[Pete]

11 hours ago, Moonshine said:

Planning factors have come into play, that mean it may be advantageous to build a contemporary house, rather that a more traditional style.

I am not a massive fan of contemporary houses and too many of them look like a white cube, with a bit of wooden cladding stuck on to break up the white.

Anyone got any views on what features add to make a contemporary house stand out, rather than just another white washed cube.

I suppose bit will be easier to build ?

I quite like our big white cuboid or cheese wedge!

[Onoff]

26 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

 I want one that looks like the Star Ship Enterprise



Edited 24 minutes ago by SteamyTe

 

Look no further...than China:

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/china/articles/Theres-a-building-in-China-shaped-like-Star-Treks-USS-Enterprise/

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Onoff said:

Look no further...than China:

Perfect, I am off to squat in it.

[Onoff]

5 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Perfect, I am off to squat in it.

 

Sad lad you are! Don't forget the shuttle craft shed:

 

 

http://fasinfun.blogspot.com/2009/09/full-size-star-trek-shuttlecraft.html?m=1

[Ferdinand]

12 hours ago, Moonshine said:

Planning factors have come into play, that mean it may be advantageous to build a contemporary house, rather that a more traditional style.

I am not a massive fan of contemporary houses and too many of them look like a white cube, with a bit of wooden cladding stuck on to break up the white.

Anyone got any views on what features add to make a contemporary house stand out, rather than just another white washed cube.

I suppose bit will be easier to build ?

 

OK. Serious. Has your planner asked for a contemporararary design? If so, what an opportunity!

 

But it is not "features". If you go for "features" you will get a pile of features, not a house. That is probably one element of how the TF companies operate - you can have your nearly-identical house looking bricky, or stoney or woody, or even metally, but the interior might not be that different. And that is valid. But contemporary designs can be just as old fashioned as traditional designs, or trad materials can be used in wonderful ways.  

 

Did you see Eileen's "Walled Garden" that she posted here. Trad but contemporary. And probably slightly beyind most of our reach, but inspiring.

 

 

 

I love the approaches, but my interesting brick bit was a 5m long patterned garden wall and a perforated bin store - which I still love, and which still make the street a bit more interesting.

 

Planners can be a bit like exterior interior designers when approaching your house (as opposed to say community facilities) - they really focus heavily on appearance, and you need to start from "How, then, will we live?" and "What do we need?" After you have an idea of this, then...

 

My suggestion is to go and visit lots of other houses - architects' houses are always good fun, via National Trust (eg Goldfinger, Hampstead inspires me), Open House days, Estate Agents, Landmark Trust, friends, BHers, and Air BNB. And enjoy it. For a bit.

 

Then come back to your ideas and your practical head once your thinking has been stretched into a weird shape, and you can decide how far you wish to go, and in which directions. Then if you have an architectural technician or architect, you are in a position to be an engaged client rather than being overwhelmed.

 

F

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Ralph]

43 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Planning factors have come into play, that mean it may be advantageous to build a contemporary house, rather that a more traditional style.

Yeah we were the same, we could get planning permission only if we did something with "architectural merit" We liked the big white and glass cube but in the end it was just to expensive to built. What we've ended up with is a "contemporary barn" style build, a phrase that I'm not a fan of.

 

It ill be grey,  metal and cement board clad, still with some reasonable glass for the nice views. The planners like it at the couple of people who live nearby seem happier with it than the cube.

[jack]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

I quite like our big white cuboid or cheese wedge!

 

Love it! The angles make all the difference imo.

[Onoff]

8 hours ago, Pete said:

I quite like our big white cuboid or cheese wedge!

 

Are you by the beach? 

[Pocster]

Build underground! It’s a dream !! ??

[Pete]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Are you by the beach? 

About 4/5 miles from the top of Morecambe bay

[Onoff]

59 minutes ago, Pete said:

About 4/5 miles from the top of Morecambe bay

 

OK. It looked as though it should be ocean side to me. Guessing that wasn't in keeping with the local architecture? Passed on its own architectural merit was it?

[Pete]

In no way does it match the local architecture and it is designed that way to be hidden behind the large Yew tree you can see behind it. The Conservation Officer (K__B) was a real pain and a bit of a bully to be honest but when the head of Planning in saw it at a meeting with architects to inform them what type of houses he would like to see being built he passed this one on the spot so I think we where fortunate. There is only a field opposite the glass wall in the photo and the other three sides are 12ft high walls as it used to be an orchard so most of the people in the village do not know of its existence.

[Moonshine]

On 25/07/2019 at 09:35, jack said:

 

Love it! The angles make all the difference imo.

 

Agree on that, and makes for a very nice design.

 

@Pete please tell me there is a roof terrace at first floor, obscured to the neighbours due to the side walls.

[Moonshine]

On 24/07/2019 at 21:51, the_r_sole said:

Contemporary houses are rarely big white cuboids, you just need to look a bit deeper in your research, if you're going for it, go balls out and make it the best, most interesting house you can afford...

Where are you looking to build? In my opinion you want to try and look at the surroundings and try to take something from them rather that just going for the spaceship approach

 

tbh the initial design for the house was a modern take on the surroundings incorporating some features, which the planners didn't like a half measures hybrid (although the officer indicated that they did initially). Their view was either build exactly the same, or their preference  go contemporary and go for it.

 

So with the switch to a contemporary house design is a new thing, and tbh not sure how its going to sit in the site. Hopefully my architect can come back with something that works for the site, works with the site constraints, and looks good.